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これはおよそ八年前、わたしが六十代の半ばの頃、地下鉄で実際に遭遇した出来事を英文にしてみたものです。その頃に出会ったイギリス人のJmyにチェックしてもらいました。下線部は直して貰った箇所で、それ故いまでも彼に感謝しています。

An incident in a Tokyo subway train
I was on my way back from work in Tokyo and got on a subway. It was an express train, crowded with people hurrying home. I looked for a vacant seat in vain and stood near the door opposite the one I entered. I was tired, an old man on the wrong side of sixty, but even the priority seats for the physically challenged, pregnant, people with infants and the aged were all occupied. Leaning on the door, I glanced through the people and glimpsed a young man sitting on one corner of the priority seat, headphones over the ears.
When the train stopped next, several people came on. A tall, lanky man who looked to be in his thirties barged into two elderly women who were standing near me at the door enjoying small talk. Pushed to the side, one woman faltered, brushing against me. The man fought his way inside. There was something determined and desperate about the way he moved. He also had an angular gait almost like a limp. Shouting some inarticulate words, he forced the young man with headphones off this seat. “This is a priority seat, isn’t it. I am entitled to it. I am handicapped.” Actually he threatened and drove the young man off with a terrible growl. Even when he seated he hurled abuse at the young man saying something like, “Stop the goddamn music. I hate it. You fucking idiot. Shut it off.” Taken aback, the young man just stood, staring back at the fierce, growling man like a mouse caught in the glare of a wild cat. Silence fell in the train, a casual pool of foul air accumulating around.
At the next statin the train stopped where our incident begins. A huge figure loomed before me and the next moment I noticed a wall of a big man’s back looking for room among dwarfs. He found it in front of the crazy cat man and proceeded there. Obviously he was a foreigner. He stood, I determined, over 2 meters tall and looked nearly as wide. By our standards, it is an impossible size for human being. `How big a man he is! He is humongous, literally.` With mixed admiration and astonishment, I gazed at the massive shoulders hunched forward, as he busied himself doing some business with his mobile phone. For a while, it was quiet, just crowded. But, all of a sudden, the metallic cat call cried out again. “Hell with your cellphone. Stop it.” The big man stopped moving his fingers and stood still, looking down at the man below. “Hell with you.” Again came dirty language. The huge guy swiveled around as if to look and check something. I saw his profile and judged he was an Indian. He looked barely annoyed as would have been the case with any native Japanese, but, instead, he just looked a little surprised and questioning. - `Is this man down in front a Japanese? He is too straightforward to be Japanese.` - He looked down again, cellphone in hand, for which the crazy man reached, tried to grab hold of it, crying. “Throw it away, your fucking phone. It’s a nuisance. Don’t you know?” He tried to grab again, moving his hand frantically and pushed the humongous man. The Indian guy instantly flared up, punching the shouting man on the face. His mighty fist hit the cat man’s eyebrow region and blood spurted. At that moment, I noticed the cat man had rather clean-cut facial features. I can even say handsome by people’s standards. Bloody handsome face, however, never stopped shouting. Words sometimes unintelligible kept cursing out. Then I heard somebody say, “Ignore him, ignore him.” (obviously to the big man.) A woman’s sharp voice followed. Surprised, I looked around to see a young woman sitting on the priority seat diagonally opposite the crazy cat. She looked in her early twenties, a slender, charming woman. “Get out, you imbecile.” She shrieked (at the cat man.) I was too astonished at this scene that had never been even imaginable back in my youth to realize right on the spot that Japan has changed. The bruised wild cat shot back. “Why, you, of all sluts.” “Shut up, you idiot!” Verbal missiles traded fire. All in all, there was no reproaching air afloat against the Indian man. Everybody seemed, if not clearly on his side, but apparently never on the side of the cat man. “Ignore him.” Someone’s voice repeated sounding in the foreigner’s favor. I also felt sorry for the huge guy from abroad.